Pilot Takes Wild Ride Clinging To Open Plane Door

September 4, 1987|By United Press International

PORTLAND, MAINE — An airline pilot who fell through a door that popped open as his plane flew 5,000 feet high at 190 mph and hung on through an emergency landing was ''just glad to see the sunrise'' Thursday and asked to be left alone.

When the plane touched down -- moving about 100 mph -- pilot Henry Dempsey's head was 6 inches off the ground, said Steve Mason, Eastern Express Airlines sales manager.

Dempsey, 46, of Cape Elizabeth, survived Wednesday's ordeal with only a cut hand and told his bosses it was a harrowing experience.

''He's asked to be left alone. He was just glad to see the sunrise,'' Mason told a press conference at Portland International Jetport. ''He was very grateful the first officer was able to complete the flight and land the way he did.''

Mason said Dempsey praised co-pilot Paul Boucher's ability to land the 15- passenger Beechcraft 99 as Dempsey clung to the cable railings on the door- stairway, which popped open and down when he made an in-fight check.

''The pilot thanked him for making a nice landing,'' said Capt. Edson Fletcher, who headed the Portland Fire Department's crash crew at Portland International Jetport when the plane made its emergency landing late Wednesday night.

Boucher was startled to see Dempsey still was alive. ''He had a rather startled look on his face, a surprised look,'' Fletcher said. ''He was real happy to see him.''

Tests on the door were completed Thursday at Eastern Express headquarters in Bangor, Mason said, and showed no mechanical trouble. The plane returned to service Thursday.

''There was no ''door-ajar'' indication light, and the door latched properly after landing,'' he said. ''There have been no previous problems with these doors.''

The Federal Aviation Administration and Eastern Express were investigating whether human error may have caused the door to rattle during flight, he said, adding it is the co-pilot's responsiblilty to close the door after passengers board.

Any passengers would have been strapped in their seats, Mason said, and could not have bumped the door.

But Dempsey and Boucher had no passengers and were flying from Lewiston to Boston when Dempsey turned controls over to Boucher so he could check a rattle in the door.

As he inspected it, the plane hit some turbulence and the door flew open. Boucher looked back, saw the door open, but could not see Dempsey.

The co-pilot immediately radioed the Portland tower for instructions to make an emergency landing and asked that the Coast Guard be informed, as he thought Dempsey was lost at sea.

''The captain opened the cabin door and got sucked out somehow,'' Boucher radioed to air traffic controllers.

Mason, noting the craft was flying between 4,000 and 5,000 feet altitude at around 190 mph when the incident occurred, said he was not sure whether Dempsey actually was sucked out of the unpressurized plane or whether he fell. Dempsey fell face down on the door as it opened, his body half in and half out of the craft. His feet were tucked inside the door jamb and he was clinging to cable railings with both hands, Mason said.

Portland firefighter Mark Thomsen, on the airport crash crew, said co- pilot Boucher was stunned when he realized Dempsey was on the plane's door and still alive.

The pilot and co-pilot hugged each other, Thomsen said, and Dempsey said he was glad that Boucher was the one to land the plane.

''It just was a miracle how he ever held on for that distance,'' Thomsen said. ''It's got to be the most unusual call we've ever had.''

Dempsey was prone on the stairs when Thomsen reached him, still clinging to the stairway's cable railings.

''He held there for three or four minutes. He didn't want to let go. He had a death grip on them,'' Thomsen said.

Fletcher said Dempsey held on for about five minutes in flight -- from the time the door opened until Boucher landed -- but, ''It probably seemed like an hour to him.''

As the crew bandaged Dempsey's cut hands and laid him on the ground, Thomsen said he joked with them.

''We asked him how his ride was and he said it wasn't too rough, but the wind was quite something. He said, 'You might want to go search around Cape Elizabeth for my hat.'''

Mason said the safety record of the Beech 99 is good, both with Eastern Express and other airlines.

However, schoolgirl peace ambassador Samantha Smith of Manchester, Maine, and her father were killed in a 1985 plane crash in a Beech 99 flown by the former Bar Harbor Airlines, now Eastern Express.

Mason said the National Transportation Safety Board ruled the 1985 accident near Lewiston was caused by the pilot's continuation of an unstable approach.